The present invention relates to a compact bill validator, which is assembled in a game machine, e.g., a slot machine, or an automatic vending machine so as to check money bills inserted.
A conventional bill validator, in which bills are turned and accommodated in a bill accommodating section, is shown in Japanese Patent Gazette No. 8-221640.
In the bill validator including a turning section for turning a traveling direction of a bill, a bill sending mechanism is located above the bill accommodating section. With this structure, total length of the bill validator including the bill accommodating section can be shorter.
However, the bills are stretched and accommodated in the bill accommodating section. Therefore, the total length of the bill validator must be equal to or longer than the length of the bill. Namely, miniaturizing the device is limited. Especially, in the device shown in the Japanese Patent Gazette No. 8-221640, the turning section of the bill sending mechanism is projected from the bill accommodating section, so that the total length of the device must be longer than the length of the bill.
For example, a bill validator, which is attached to a slot machine, has no bill accommodating section. Bills checked by the device are conveyed to a remote accommodating place by a conveyor unit, which is installed on the rear side of slot machines. In this case, cost of installing the conveyor unit must be high.
To reduce the cost for installing the conveyor unit, the bill validator including the bill accommodating section is attached to each slot machine. However, as described above, miniaturizing the device is limited, so if the slot machine has no space for attaching the bill validator, the device cannot be used. Namely, the small-sized bill validator including the bill accommodating section is required.